The proposed .cart top-level domain represents the cart - the online basket or the physical trolley into which things are gathered before they are taken away or sold. It also represents the wheeled carts used to move goods, tools, food, and equipment from market stalls to workshops and grounds.
Intercap Registry proposes to operate .cart as an open namespace, available for registration by the general public without restriction.
Intended registrants include individuals, creators, businesses, and organizations of all kinds that offer goods, make or supply carts of any sort, or build the tools people use to gather and check out what they have chosen. Intended users are members of the general public.
Intercap Registry will make .cart names available worldwide through ICANN-accredited registrars, promote awareness and adoption of the namespace, publish its registration policies ahead of launch, operate the TLD openly, respond promptly to reports of abuse, and comply with applicable safeguards.
Demand for this category is durable: gathering items before taking them away is a standing step in trade of every kind, and carts themselves are made and used across sectors, tied to no trend or single company.
Link Freedom Group (LFG) aspires to become a best-in-class, vertically integrated domain name registration authority, see linkfreedomgroup.link. This TLD is part of a carefully curated portfolio of strings that LFG intends to pursue in ICANN’s 2026 New gTLD Program. In assembling this portfolio, LFG focused on securing meaningful, memorable, and commercially compelling strings that resonate strongly with end users and offer long-term growth potential.
Over the past four years, LFG (Nova Registry) has successfully grown its flagship TLD, .LINK, from approximately 125,000 to more than 300,000 domains under management. This growth has been driven by innovative distribution strategies, the expansion of registrar partnerships, and a granular pricing model that has enabled .LINK to remain competitively priced while avoiding the significant fee increases implemented by some other registry operators.
LFG’s experience in the domain name industry has reinforced one of the key lessons from the 2012 application round: long-term sustainability is strengthened through portfolio diversification. By spreading operational costs and mitigating revenue fluctuations across multiple TLDs, LFG is better positioned to withstand market volatility and invest in continued growth. Accordingly, LFG believes that even obtaining a subset of the TLDs for which it has applied will establish a diversified portfolio capable of supporting long-term economic stability, operational resilience, and sustainable growth.
The mission of .CART is to provide a namespace associated with the concept of cart as means of holding, carrying, transporting, or organizing goods or other items. The .CART gTLD is intended to serve a broad range of registrants and users, including individuals, businesses, organizations, communities, projects, and other entities that identify with, relate to, or wish to be associated with the concept represented by the applied-for string.
The purpose of .CART is to enable registrants to establish online identities using domain names that correspond to this concept. To achieve this purpose, Paws Button, LLC will make .CART available for registration through registrars and other appropriate distribution channels; maintain a secure, stable, and reliable registry infrastructure; implement registration and operational policies that support the availability, security, and integrity of the namespace; and provide ongoing administration of the gTLD to enable registrants to register and use domain names within the namespace.
The purpose of .CART is sustainable over time because holding, carrying, transporting, and organizing goods and other items will continue to play a fundamental and enduring role across society. As society and technology evolve, organizations and individuals will continue to establish online identities associated with the applied-for string.
1. Mission and Purpose of the Applied-for gTLD
.cart speaks directly to the single most decisive moment in online retail: the point where browsing becomes buying. The string names the shopping basket itself, the universally recognized symbol of intent to purchase, giving retailers, marketplaces, and commerce brands a web address that signals "buy here" without explanation. Where a generic extension forces a business to spell out what it sells, .cart communicates the action at the heart of every transaction.
The purpose is to give online sellers a memorable, category-defining place to host storefronts, checkout flows, promotional landing pages, and branded shopping destinations. A coffee roaster could use beans.cart, a marketplace could route customers to a clean, trustworthy checkout, and a direct-to-consumer brand could build a recognizable shopping presence that customers instantly understand. The name does the work of explaining itself, helping merchants turn a web address into a clear invitation to buy.
For shoppers, a .cart address offers reassurance and clarity: it signals they are in the right place to complete a purchase. For merchants, it offers a way to stand out in a crowded retail landscape where short, descriptive names are scarce. As commerce expands across social platforms, messaging apps, live video, and emerging retail channels, sellers increasingly need a portable, channel-independent identity. A .cart domain provides that anchor, a destination customers can return to regardless of where the discovery happened.
Intended Registrants: Online retailers, direct-to-consumer brands, marketplaces, and e-commerce technology providers seeking a checkout-focused web address.
Related Activities Supporting the Purpose:
• Awareness-building with merchants and e-commerce communities
• Registrar distribution across retail and small-business channels
• Registrant education on naming checkout, basket, and storefront pages
• Outreach to direct-to-consumer and marketplace ecosystems
• Responsible registry operations
2. Sustainability of the Purpose Over Time
The shopping cart represents a fixed point in the structure of commerce: the moment a buyer commits to acquiring goods. This step has existed in every retail system, from market stalls to department stores to online storefronts, and it persists regardless of which technologies, payment methods, or sales channels happen to be in fashion.
What makes this concept durable is that it is tied to transactions, not tools. Storefront software, payment processors, and retail platforms will continue to change, but the underlying economic event, selecting goods and committing to buy them, remains constant. The cart is the universal metaphor for that commitment. Even as commerce shifts toward voice ordering, social shopping, automated reordering, and channels not yet invented, the conceptual act of gathering items to purchase endures, and the word that describes it stays meaningful.
The string also benefits from near-universal comprehension. "Cart" requires no translation of intent; across cultures and languages of online retail, it is understood as the place where buying happens. This shared recognition gives the namespace a stable foundation that does not depend on any single trend, vendor, or platform remaining dominant.
Demand is anchored to a large and renewing population of sellers. New retailers, brands, and marketplaces launch continuously, and each one needs a clear way to direct customers toward purchase.